Google Earth’s 24-hour AI experiment damaged something more valuable than a feature

For roughly one day in July, Google let users generate photorealistic AI alterations directly inside Google Earth at real geographic coordinates. Researchers promptly generated fake nuclear infrastructure in Iran, a bomb crater next to a Gaza hospital and other fabricated scenes. Google withdrew the feature within 24 hours and promised stronger safeguards.

Mahsa Alimardani’s deeper point is about the “liar’s dividend.” Google Earth has long been used by OSINT investigators as a baseline against which war footage, atrocities and satellite imagery can be verified. Once a trusted evidentiary tool can itself manufacture plausible scenes, genuine evidence becomes easier to dismiss: an actor does not need to prove an image is fake, merely make “maybe it’s AI” credible.

Generative AI’s worst misinformation effect may ultimately be reducing confidence in authentic evidence rather than convincing everyone to believe individual fakes.